| Those American Idol folks have been relatively quiet this Christmas, but not the rest of the reality show talent competition people. Olivia Millerschin is a former quarter-finalist on America's Got Talent. She's written and recorded a new Christmas song called "Bring You Back Home". It's a pretty little Folk Pop thing and it's free from Noisetrade along with two other non-holiday tracks. | |
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One of these years, I'm going to get to listen to this before Christmas. But obviously not this year. "Ho Ho Ho Canada" is in it's sixth year, now, and Line of Best Fit continue to show that they are the true masters of putting together a large Christmas compilation. I love The Burning Hell (Did you know they had a Hanukkah song a few years back? They did.) and Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers does a great job with "Last Winter". And I have the Good Lovelies Christmas CD and "Under The Tree" is not on it, so that's cool. And I only just learned that that CD, "Under The Mistletoe" was released on vinyl a couple of weeks ago. You can find it at Six Shooter Records.
You can download "Ho Ho Ho Canada VI" at Soundcloud, but I recommend you get it at the Line Of Best Fit website where you'll find a one-click zip file under the playlist.  Sugardrum is the performance name for the Britain's Indie Acoustic performer Nigel Bunner. Bunner is a multi-instrumentalist but, for his annual Christmas gifts, he tends to go solo guitar. On his Soundcloud feed, you'll find a few of his past Christmas efforts--"Winter Wonderland", "Silent Night", "Let It Snow"--but here's the thing. All played together, you kind of drown in that mellowness. Some times, that's a good thing. But, for mixtapers, you're likely going to want to use just one song. And Nigel's approach and sound worked best for me on this year's free download "Last Christmas" (a slightly different mix is also further down the Soundcloud feed). Anyway, that's my opinion, for what it's worth. And slowing the song down, as Sugardrum does, is much more in keeping with the subject matter of the lyrics.
So Paste decided to put out a Christmas collection this year after all. Normally, the "Paste Holiday Sampler" comes out the tail end of November. And it's normally got a lot more music on it. But I can't complain. It's free. How can you complain about free?
Let's see. I already bought the excellent Swear and Shake single, "Santa, My First Love". If you didn't, get it here because it's excellent. Over The Rhine has a sampler of their own on Noisetrade (and I'd already bought the CD). You should have read about that one on Lie In The Sound. They also filled you in on The Oh Hellos and James Apollo, as did Christmas A-Go-Go (and we were going to mention Apollo ourselves and likely still will). Mistletunes featured Field Report recently, although, at the time, it was only a stream. And Sinclair's "This Christmas" was part of that mammoth Amazon "All Is Bright" playlist. That leaves four that I haven't seen written about. "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" is a devout Indie acoustic hymn from Dwayne Shivers. River Whyless pretties up "Jingle Bells" about as much as anyone can. Odessa's "Silent Night" is pretty straight forward Indie Folk/Americana. And Powerkompany's Indie Pop Rock "I'm Sorry About Last Christmas" sounds sincere enough but is full of snarky lyrics. I'm tired, so I'm not really giving this my best effort. But, make no mistake, this is all good stuff. My highlights would be the tracks from Swear and Shake, Sinclair, James Apollo and Powerkompany, if that means anything to you.
A Philly based Indie Rock/Indie Folk band, the Accents have been together since 2010 and they've done quite a few Christmas songs over that time, though not always as the Accents. As soon as I heard their cover version of Lady Gaga's "Christmas Tree", I recognized it as something we shared in 2010 (I even had it on the inaugural "Stubbys House Christmas"). That song (as well as "How The Grinch Folked Christmas") were on a free digital EP and billed as being by Cast Before The Break. Loved it then, love it now. "An Accents Family Christmas" is one of those "growing collections" of Christmas songs, where they just keep adding to the set. The newly recorded song for 2014 is "Mele Kalikimaka", which is mighty fine. But its even cooler hearing Folk Pop versions of Justin Bieber and Darlene Love that I hadn't heard before. And covering Kermit The Frog is pretty cool, too. Grab this fine collection from the Accents, free from Noisetrade.
I was talking with a close friend earlier who lost a friend of hers not long ago. About my age. She said that we've reached an age where the loved ones we are losing are our peers. It's not just the older crowd anymore; we are the older crowd. I lost my mother earlier this year. Another friend lost his father. Christmas can, for many, be a difficult period of adjusting and coping with loss of friends and family members. Day to day can be tough enough, but Christmas can be doubly so.
Philadelphia Christian Folk singer / songwriter Mark Giacobbe admits his new song might not be for everyone. But, for those who have recently suffered a loss, he hopes "Christmases Like These" brings them comfort.
Fomerly with My Favorite Highway, Dave Cook's new project is The Hemispheres (it's another of those band names for a solo project things). And if his three-song Christmas EP "Santa's Whiskey" is any indication, I'm a huge fan right now. These are brilliantly written pieces which, I'm hoping, aren't entirely autobiographical. Because all three songs are about dealing with the holidays after the one you love has gone. "This Silent Night" contrasts all the happy memories of Christmas together with the emptiness of Christmas alone. "Commercial Holiday" is about how all the bling in the universe is meaningless without the one you love. And "Santa's Whiskey" might be the saddest of all. In "Santa's Whiskey", the implication seems clear (as it doesn't on the other two) that it wasn't a breakup that separated them, but rather a death. Everything has changed and the guy whose "laugh could light up any room" is getting drunk on Santa's whiskey.
"We do our best to move along Like a note without a song And I can't believe you're gone Cause I could swear you're near when the Christmas lights come on" The lyrics are truly gorgeous. The imagery is vivid. And your heart breaks listening. Really, you can't write music any better than this. "Santa's Whiskey" is available as a free download at Soundcloud. And do stop by Dave's Facebook page and give him a "Like". Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the holidays? Here's your anthem. Boston based vocalist Samantha Sinclair says "Chill". She want to skip past all of the holiday drama and hibernate til it passes. My favorite line from the song, and an unfortunate reminder to us all: "Winter's barely started yet". In point of fact, winter hasn't yet started at all and won't until this Sunday. That's a scary thought. "Chill" is mostly about dealing with the holidays post-breakup and its in the mode of the Indie Folk Pop style of, say, A Fine Frenzy. You can get with it if you want to. It's free at Bandcamp.
Technically, The Parmesans are a Folk Pop trio from San Francisco, but this mix of tunes from a Charlie Brown Christmas has more than a little Jazz in it. I suppose that's nearly unavoidable if you really like Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack. It starts as "Linus & Lucy" (always my favorite from the special anyway), but they'll get to "Christmas Time Is Here" if you hang in for a bit. Nice sound whatever you call it.
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The FREE ListHere we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations. Archives2010 FREE List Categories
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